Malcolm Mulholland: Patient Voice Aotearoa chair voices concerns about potential lack of doctors in rural areas

There's concerns over extreme staff shortages in rural hospitals - as the Government announces funding to help urgent and after-hours care. 

Patient Voice Aotearoa has revealed more than 20 rural hospitals across the country are looking for one or more locum doctors.

The Far North's Dargaville, Bay of Islands, and Kaitaia hospitals are doctor-less - and relying on telehealth.

Chair Malcolm Mulholland says it's unclear how we can staff extra services - and we have to do more to keep doctors here.

"This is the problem that we've got - whether we're looking at GPs or specialists who operate within our hospitals, we simply don't have enough."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are questions over whether the budget funding for more
access to twenty four to seven urgent care clinics will
actually help if there aren't enough doctors to staff the
Hospital's Patient Voice outs here at or has published an
extensive list of the rural hospitals around the country that
are an urgent need of doctors, and some, it turns out,
have none at all. Malcolm will Holland's chair of Patient
Voice outs here a or A.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey Malcolm, Hi, Heather, Malcolm.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
If we don't have doctors to keep these places running,
then what is the money going to do?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah? Precisely. I don't have an answer to that.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
I mean, I assume that they are looking to employ neurs,
practitioners and news prescribers and nurses. But even then you're
going to run into some problems because they're not going
to be able to diagnose every condition and many of
them will have.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
To be referred on to the local Eed.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
What about the paramedics, because apparently they will staff it two.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, I mean again, paramedics are probably great in dealing
with heart attacks and the like, but they're not trained
to doctors. And this is the problem that we've got.
Whether we're looking at GPS or specialists who operate within
our hospitals. We simply do not have enough.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
How short are we?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Well, we're very short when it comes to GPS. Right
now we're about five hundred short and in a decade
or just under will be one thousand short and we
only produce one hundred and thirty and one hundred and forty.
So operating on the assumption that every single GP stays
in the country, we're still looking at five or so
years to catch up to our current shortage that we're

(01:26):
is that but is that now?

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Is that a realistic way to work it out? Because
obviously not all our doctors stay here and actually we
do recruit quite a fair a few from overseas, don't.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
We We do, and that is fear. But we have
to look at why we're not being competitive on the
international market, and that is simply because we don't pay
our doctors enough. We know that they can earn two
to three times more going to Australia and other parts
of the world.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Malcolm, is it? I mean, if you're turning up to
one of these rural twenty four seven clinics and you're
seeing a nurse practitioner or you're seeing a prescribing nurse
or you're seeing a paramedic. That is not a health
compromising situation, is it?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh? It is and we've had reports of that.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
So when I recently went up to the Far North,
I met a lady whose husband had suffered a stroke.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
They presented to the Eddy department in Katia.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
They were given a telehealth appointment with a doctor in
America who told just monitor your husband. The husband's condition
deteriorated and rather than taking him back to Klytire, she
actually had to take him through to Auckland.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, Malcolm, thanks very much, appreciate your time, mate, Malcolm
will Holland patient voice outsiad or chair. As I said,
he has put on an extensive list of rural hospitals
advertising for locums now when it says open to any availability,
it basically means the hospital is an extreme need of
one or more locums. Dargaville open to any availability, fung
A Nui, same Gisbon, same Southland, same Bay of Islands

(02:52):
open to availability, Ashburton open to availability, Gore open to availability.
From May Westport contact for details to mat and New
contact for details talking to us soon for Katani needed
for seventy one ed shifts from May to July, Tens
sixty seven shifts from May to August, Katya sixty five
shifts from July to December, and it just goes on
and on, and some hospitals and have pointed out our

(03:14):
dargable Bay of Islands, Kaitaia no doctors, so when you
get there, you just get put on a zoom call
basically to somebody.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
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Speaker 1 (03:23):
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